


What she asked, what he heard, and what followed.

by snarknoir19



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Romance, Skinny Dipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 19:00:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21983455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snarknoir19/pseuds/snarknoir19
Summary: Starlit conversations.
Relationships: T’Challa/Natasha Romanoff (Marvel). Natasha Romanov/T’Challa (Marvel)
Kudos: 28





	What she asked, what he heard, and what followed.

Pale blue light rippled in crisp waves across the patio wall and danced along the underside of the yawning table umbrellas. 

They were far too high up for the city’s night noises to reach them. Well above the traffic, the sirens, and the horns far below. Just the two of them together, lounging in his rooftop pool. Music trailed lightly out to them across the patio from his apartment to where he reclined on the submerged steps and she lay back against him gazing out into the night sky, fingertips idly tracing patterns into his arms where they hugged around her middle. 

It was his favorite dance this, softly rocking in the cool water, and she was his favorite partner. If he was honest with himself she was the only one who mattered.

T’Challa knew she loved the sunken lights and how they turned everything a bright, cobalt blue and recalled how she had once whispered to him, in the midst of a slow, sensuous, slide, that this rooftop was their private dream world. That it existed entirely outside reality. 

Her head fell back to his chest and he knew she was scanning the night sky. She would lay like this until her skin pruned unless he initiated a move, which, he had no intention of doing. T’Challa had always loved the night sky, one of the many things they had in common, but scanning it with Natasha in his arms was another thing altogether. 

Her slow caress followed the music’s rhythm and he lay back adrift in sensations. And after a long sweet while of silence when he thought she’d fallen asleep her soft question surprised him. 

“So, later? After the party?” He felt the roll of her hips against him, clarifying her intentions. The stars were only partially obscured and he saw she had posed her question toward the constellations. 

“Are you asking Orion or me?” He asked and she wriggled her backside against him. 

“I think if you let go of me right now I might drift right out there among them.” She was celestial herself. magical, mythological.

He recalled her comment from earlier in the day. Something about appreciating his sturdiness in the storm. She’d meant his friendship. She was the storm. 

He felt her confirm her grip on his arms before she continued. Quieter: 

“You’ve never questioned....this.” She paused there and pulled his arm more tightly around her. 

T’Challa inhaled the fragrance of her. Wet and half buoyant in his arms. The music shifted to the next track and he noticed how the rhythm matched the ripples around them. 

“One shouldn’t question full moons, or meteor showers, or rainbows.” He snuggled her closer against him. “I appreciate them when they visit.” He spoke softly into the space behind her left ear and felt when she shivered.

She was quiet in his arms after that and for several breaths said nothing, just watched the heavens twinkle above them until she whispered: “One might take such things for granted. Tire of them, I imagine...” 

He felt the trace of fingertips slow, and then pause slightly in the time where he might have replied. 

And just like that, the dance had changed and the steps were infinitely more complex. And after everything it was Natasha leading them to a new part of the dance floor, which only slightly surprised him at this point in their ... he didn’t know what to call them. 

T’Challa had wondered if the former assassin could ever really trust that someone might love her. And if they loved her, that they would stay. It seemed she might be willing to try. 

So he thought of storms and sturdiness and told her:

“I coded your biometrics into my security system.” And let the implications linger. The offer. The house would recognize her as part of the home. Something that belonged. 

He felt her lean forward after a moment, away from him, and after a subtle shimmy and twist she was back against him again and warm and tossing her swimsuit on the deck beside them. 

Later his joined hers. 

And the fingertips were sliding again and tapping slowly now. Drumming like warm spring rain. With the promise of flowers.


End file.
